Mary English
Mary English (nee Hollingsworth; d.' '1694) was a blood witch and wife of Philip English. Biography Early life Mary Hollingsworth was born to William and Eleanor Hollingsworth in the 17th century. Her father was a wealthy merchant. In 1675, Mary married Philip English. The couple established residence in a grand home with a view of the harbor. They raised two daughters in this beautifully proportioned home on Essex Street. Over the course of the next two decades, Mary's husband developed a highly profitable trading company and came to own a fleet of twenty-one ships, as well as fourteen lots and a wharf in Salem. English earned his money by trading fish for produce from the tropics and manufactured goods from Europe. Fishermen on ships owned by English sailed the North Atlantic coast from Maine to the Newfoundland Banks. English also took an active role in local affairs. In April 1692, he was elected a Salem Town selectman. Salem Witch Trials Just before midnight on April 18, Sheriff George Corwin and his deputies, acting on an unknown accusation, arrived at the English home on Essex Street. Opening the curtains around Mary's bed, Corwin ordered her to accompany him. Not easily intimidated, Mary told Corwin to go away and arrest her in the morning. Corwin agreed to wait, ordering his deputies to guard the house during the night to prevent an escape. On Sunday morning, after Mary had eaten breakfast, she consented to be taken to a second-floor room at the Cat and Wheel tavern near the meetinghouse. Mary English appeared before a large crowd at the Salem meeting house on April 22, 1692 to answer a complaint of witchcraft. The examination records for that day are lost, and so the precise reasons for the charge against her remain unknown. She most likely became a target because her husband attracted attention because he was a native French speaker (and the French, because of their association with warring Indians were anything but popular), because he was an Episcopalian in an overwhelmingly Puritan community, and because had unsuccessfully pursued contentious lawsuits over disputed property. It is also possible that general knowledge that Mary's dead mother had once been accused of witchcraft contributed to the accusation. Susannah Sheldon, who later accused Philip of witchcraft, claimed to have seen Mary's apparition, accompanied by a black man wearing a tall hat. Abigail Williams added to Mary's problems when she told authorities that George Jacob's specter told her that he had recruited Mary as a witch. Mary remained housed in Salem for three weeks following her examination. On May 12, she was transfered to a jail in Boston to await trial. Philip's vocal criticism of his wife's arrest made himself an obvious target for a similar accusation. On April 30, 1692, a warrant issued for Philip's arrest. Philip, however, knew in advance of the charge against him and, after first hiding in a secret room, fled to Boston, where he hoped his influence could be used to free Mary. When it became apparent that his absence was hurting rather than helping his wife, he returned to Salem to face charges of witchcraft. Magistrates examined Philip on May 31, then ordered him sent to join his wife in a jail in Boston (a privilege granted through the help of English's friends). The Boston jailer freed the couple each morning, on the promise that they would return at night to sleep in the jail. According to stories handed down in the English family, a Boston minister named Joshua Mooley convinced Philip and Mary to flee Boston just before the scheduled start of their witchcraft trials. Mooley based his Sunday sermon on Matthew 10:23, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another." Just to make sure they got the message, Mooley later visited the couple in jail that evening, telling them that he had made arrangement for "their conveyance out of the Colony." Somewhat reluctantly, Mary and Philip took the advice, leaving behind their two teenage daughters to stay with friends in Boston while they made way by carriage for New York, where they intended to wait out the madness in Salem. In New York, Mary and Philip received periodic reports of the continuing hysteria in Salem. A combination of lost time in the fields and drought caused a food scarcity in Salem, and Philip arranged for a shipload of corn to be sent there to ease the suffering. Later life In 1693, with the hysteria finally ended, Philip and Mary returned to Salem to find that Sheriff Corwin had confiscated much of their property. The next year, shortly after giving birth to a son, Mary died. Category:17th century births Category:17th century deaths Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Blood witches Category:Witches Category:Married characters Category:Salem Witch Trials